Feeding device.



J. I.- HOLCOIVIB.

FEEDING DEVLCE.

APPucATloN FILED MAvls. |914.

Patented Feb. 13, 191?.

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J. l. HOLCOMB.

FEEDING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY I8, I9I4. 19m 6,1m

Patented Feb.13,1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

J. I. HOLCOIVIB.

FEEDING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 13, 1914.

LQWJI, Panama F@b.13,1917.

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application hledl May it, 191e. aerial Ito. atenas.

To att 'whom it may concer y Be it own that I, Janne l. Hormone, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of indianapolis, county of Marion, and

t State of Indiana have invented a certain new and useful ceding Device; and l do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and era/ ct description thereof, refer-' ence beiig had to the accompanying drawtu ings, in which like letters refer to like parts. The object of this invention is to improve the mechanical feeding of corn popping machines and the invention has been made and used in connection with corn popping matt chinos substantially similar to that set forth in the United States Letters Patent to Danial H. Talbert, No. 1,200,269, October 3, 1916'. The satisfactory feeding of popcorn in corn popping machines of the automatic tu type has presented ay dicult problem, and4 this invention has been made as a solution of such problem.

v rll`he full nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanying drawin and the following description and cla i ln the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of the ai: with parts broken away' and parts sho by dotted lines. Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3

is a vern'cal section on the line 3 3 of Fig. l. Fig. d is a vertical section on the line d-t of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a side elevation taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3. Fig. 6 is a plan view of a segmental plate.

the top of the corn popping machine which,

however, is not here shown, but the chute l0 leads from this device downward for conveying the corn to the popping machine and this machine is for the satisfactory feeding of the corn to said chute 10. v v

'llhere is a base 11 with a hopper l2 mounted thereon bymeans of the supports 13, one in each corner. e hopper 12 has sloping side and bottom portions ld, 15, 16 and 17. The f lportion it of the hoppez-entends aight downward, but has an inclination to an outlet 18. e portion 15 of the hopper extends straight at the downward incllnation until it reaches the vertical wall 19. The portion 16 is similar to the portion excepting that it is provided with a vertical doward extension 20, as shown tf in Fig. d. vlhe upper part of the portion 17 is slightly ined hom a verticale and This device is adapted to be pla upon the lower ortion is substantially vertical. rlherefore, etween the verticalwalls 19 and 20 and the lower part of the portions 1d and 17 there is a pocket marked 2l herein `for convenience, terminating in its lower end in theoutlet 18.

Under the 'hopper there is a horizontally disposed feedwheel mounted on a verti-. cal rod 26 which screws upward into the entension'20 from the hopperportion 16, as shown in Fig. d. Said feed wheel has ratchet teeth 27 around it and a series of feed openings 28 throu h it, said feed openings moving successive y beneath the outlet 18 from the hopper. 'lhese feed openings are egg-shaped, as shown in Fig. 1, with the ta ering end projecting toward the center o thewheel 25 so thatthe sides 'of the openings 28 are substantially radial. The feed wheel rides and rotates loosely over a se mental plate 3d which is oscillatab y mounted on the bolt 26 and always closes the bottomof the pockets 28 when they are registering either wholly or partially with the hopper outlet 18, serving to hold the popcorn in the pockets 28 until the feeding movement of the wheel 25 .ultimately brings the pocket over the chute 10. Therefore, the seental plate 30 must project` partially over the chute 10, atleast when said plate 30 is at one limit of its oscillatory movement. When it is at the other endofits'oscillatory movement, the plate 30 will not entend over the chute 10 and will move from under the pocket in the wheel 25 which has been moved over the'chute 10 and thus permit the discharge of the corn from the pocket to the chute.

The means for oscillating the segmental plate 30 and giving the wheel 25 its feeding oog movement consists of a reciprocatory rod 32 which is actuated by an eccentric 33 on a driving shaft 3d mounted in posts 35. e rod 32 proj loosely through a lug 36 which entends downward from the segmental plate 30, vsee Figs. 3 and 5, and there are collars 37 secured on said rod 32 on each side of the lug 36, but spaced far enough from said lug to allow for a' little freedom of movement. vllherefore, each revoluon of the eccentric 33 causes a to and fro movement of the seental plate 30.

.An arm d0 ends radially from the segmental plate 30 and carries a spring pawl di loc adapted to engage the ratchet 27 on the movement in the direction of the arm, shown in' lFig. 1.

The rod 32 has in the particular constructhe plate 45 is adjusted to aforward position, the pawl 41 will ride od' the plate 45 and disengage the ratchet and when the pawl is given its forward movement, it will ride oif the plate 45 and engage the ratchet and advance the wheel 25. In Fig. 1, a lever 46 is adjusted at one limit of its movement so that each movement of wheel 25 will equal the distance between the end of the plate 45 and the end of the pawl 41. By moving the lever 46 along a segmental bar 47, the plate 45 will be brought close to the end of the pawl 41, as shown in Fig. l, and thus correspondingly reduce' the extent of forward movement which said pawl at each stroke will give the wheel 25. The lever 46 is at its inner end pivoted on the bolt 26 and at its outer end travels over the segmental bar 47 between the stops 48 and 49 thereon. A set screw 50 in the outer end of said lever 46 engages the outer surface of the segmental bar 47 so as to hold the lever 46 in an adjusted position.

This adjustment enables the feeding movement of the wheel 45'to be varied in speed for reducing the length of cach movement and when the lever 46 is at its lowest limit of movement, the plate 45 will hold the pawl entirely out of engagement with the ratchet 27 and thus will stop the movement of the feed wheel 25. The segmental plate 30, however, will always have a uniform movement.

The combined step by step forward movement of the feed wheel with the associated oscillatory movement of the segmental plate causes them to coperate in a peculiar way. When the feed wheel moves far enough over the plate to uncover only a portion of a pocket, some corn will remain in the pocket, but the return'movement of the segmental plate will cause a discharge of said corn and in fact, such return movement of the plate may not only cause the discharge movement of a little of the corn in the pocket, but it may move away from under a portion of the succeeding pocket and allow a discharge of a portion of the corn in that pocket. rfhe fact that the pawl and ratchet is mounted on a segmental plate whereby the Vfeed wheel is actuated, causes a close coaction of said two parts of vthe machine.

The back movement of the wheel 25 is prevented by any common means for that purpose, butin the form shown the end of garenne the plate is thin and projects inward and since said plateis in the nature of a spring, it serves as a pawl and accomplishes that function. in addition to the function above mentioned. @n the portion 17 of the hopper there is a brush block 60 secured with downwardly extending brushes 6l which project to the left-hand side of the hopper outlet 18, as shown in Figs. l and 3, so as to prevent anyof the corn from passing out under the plate 17 and cause it all to enter the pockets 28 of the wheel 25.

The invention is:

1. A feeding device including a hopper with a reduced outlet, a rotatable wheel mounted horizontally below said hopper with pocket holes therethrough arranged to register with the outlet from the hopper, an oscillatory plate beneath said wheel, and means for adjusting said oscillating plate and holding it in adjusted position.

2. A feeding device including a hopper with a reduced outlet, a rotatable wheel mounted horizontally below said hopper with pocket holes therethrough arranged to register with the outlet from the hopper, an oscillatory plate beneath said wheel, and means for causing a step by step advance movement of said wheel and an oscillatory movement of said plate.

3. A feeding device including a hopper with a reduced outlet, a rotatable wheel mounted horizontally below said hop er with pocket holes therethrough arrang ai to register with the outlet from the hopper, an oscillatory plate beneath said wheel, means for giving said plate an oscillatory movement, and means carried by said plate for giving the wheela step by step forward movement.

4. A fg device inclu` a hopr with a reduced outlet, a rotatable wheel mounted horizontally below said hopper with pocket holes therethrough arranged to register with the outlet from the hopper, the periphery of said wheel being provided with ratchet teeth, a plate beneath said wheel, means for oscillating said plate, an arm entending radially from said plate beyond said wheel. and a spring pawl on said arm for engaging the ratchet teeth on said wheel for causing a step by step movement of the wheel.

5. A feeding device including a hopper with a reduced outlet, a rotatable wheel mounted horizontally below said hop gv with pocket holes therethrough arrange to register with the` outlet from the hopper, an oscillatory plate beneath said wheel, me for givingv said plate an oscillatory movement, means carried by said plate for gi the wheel a step by step forward movement,

lllld and means for var ing the extent of each me l with a reduced outlet, a rotatable Wheel mounted horizontally below `said hopper with pocket holes therethrough arranged to register with the outlet from the hopper, the periphery of said wheel being provided with ratchet teeth, a plate beneath said Wheel, meansfor oscillatingr said plate, an arm'eX- tending radially from said plate beyond said wheel, a spring .pawl jon Said varm for engaging the ratchet teeth on said wheel and causing a step by step movement ofthe wheel, a lever pivoted concentricv With'. Said Wheel, and a plate carried by said lever arranged to lie close to the ratchet so that said plate may hold the pawl out of engagement with the ratchet on said Wheel during a part of the movement of the pawl.

7 A feeding device including a hopper with a reduced outlet, a rotatable Wheel mounted horizontally below said hopper with pocket holes therethrough arranged to register with the outlet from the hopper, the periphery of said wheel being provided With ratchet teeth, a plate beneath said Wheel, means for oscillating said plate, an arm eX- tending radially from said plate beyond said wheel, a spring pawl on said arm for engaging the ratchet teeth on-said Wheel and causing a step by step movement of the Wheel, an adJustable lever pivoted concentric with said wheel, and a plate carried by said lever arranged to lie close to the ratchet so that said plate may hold the pawl out of engagement With the ratchet on said Wheel during a part of or the entire movement of the pawl, as desired. l

8. A feeding device including a hopper with a reduced outlet, a rotatable Wheel mounted horizontally below said hopper with pocket holes therethrough arranged to register with the outlet from the hopper, the periphery of said Wheel being provided with ratchet teeth, a plate beneath said Wheel, means for oscillating said plate, an arm extending radially from said plate beyond said wheel, a spring pawl on said arm for engaging the ratchet teeth on said Wheel and causing a step by step movement of the Wheel, an

adjustable lever pivoted concentric with said Wheel, a plate carried by said lever arranged to lie close to the ratchet so that said plate may hold the pawl out of engagement with the ratchet on said Wheel during a part of the movement of the pawl, and means for securing said lever in its adjustedvposition.

In Witness whereof, I have hereunto affixed my signature in the presence of the Witness herein named.

Witness J. H. Wam. 

